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Wow. What a difference a year can make.
Last year I went to Gen Con for the first time and played 3 PFS slots, including Year of the Shadow Lodge.
This year, I returned as a Venture-Captain with home field advantage. It was amazing. I worked all 10 slots in HQ, an experience that not only let me help assist players, but to also help assist the GMs who were there to give their tables a great time. It was simply amazing.
Since one of my primary duties was to help players with the Treasure Chest, I got much more interaction than just with a single table or even 8-10 tables worth of players. I got to have interactions with just about everyone who came to play Pathfinder Society! It was outstanding. Seeing people's excitement as they tried to win the fabulous loots and prizes, their amazement as they were awarded a really cool boon like playing a monstrous race was pretty fantastic.
To those I met, I hope to cross paths again. Next year I think we'll need a bigger room!
Thanks to everyone!
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100% agree.
As this was my first ever GenCon, I got to meet a lot of awesome people at the PFS booth, and even ran a number of sessions throughout the weekend.
Since my only real interaction with the Society up until the Con had been through some freelance PFS scenarios, it was great to meet up with people and see them playing the game they enjoy.
Mark, I think you're right - "we're gonna need a bigger boat" (err... room).
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Yar!
It was great meeting everyone -- the PFS crowd at Gen Con was amazing, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing everyone again next year (unless we run into each other at another con between now and then).
And I don't see how Gen Con could justify not giving us more room considering the number of tables we sat, including 51 out of 45 available for the special! Kudos to the mustering team and all the volunteer GMs for making that work -- I didn't think we'd get everyone in, but we did.
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I had a great time at GenCon '11- mostly playing PFS. A great big thanks to Mark, and all the GM's, VC's, and HQ staff. You all did a great job getting so many players to their tables and then getting all the generic ticket folks sorted out. It was rare that even with all the chaos we waited more than 10-15 to be playing. That is an incredible feat considering the number of players.
Probably the biggest testimony to PFS this year is that a couple of my local players are wanting to switch systems to Pathfinder, all because of the professionalism they saw from the Paizo folks and the quality of games presented.
I can't wait for next year!
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I too wanted to thank all my players, fellow GMs, and Venture Captains for another great Gen Con. Last year I took the opportunity to don the GM hat, and the fun I had directly lead to me applying for the role of Venture-Captain. This year, you guys made it another fantastic convention - even if I didn't get to play in the one other non-Pathfinder game I had tickets for. Shrugging that game to help out with the Delve was worth it.
I also had the opportunity to run the same table I had in 2010 through this year's Year of the Ruby Phoenix special. Again, as always I had a blast.
Special thanks also to Mark Garringer for setting up Scotty's. It was tight, loud, and hot, but we managed. My group took up the offer to play outside and frankly, it was one of the best decisions we could have made. We had shade, fans, and a full-table. That makes for a great day.
Had a great time at Gen Con this year, aided greatly by spending more time at Paizo events than in years previous. Highlights were....
Great products for sale - Ultimate Combat, the last Carrion Crown AP and first Jade Regent AP, Goblins of Golarion, Pathfinder Society Field Guide, and Inner Sea Magic, as well as a few older books I'd missed. I spent nearly $150.00 just at the Paizo booth alone, and could have easily topped two hundred if I hadn't restrained myself.
Excellent adventures - I played in three adventures while I was there, the only three that weren't full when I pre-registered, but I could have easily attended more because (and MASSIVE kudos here) the Paizo staff bent over backwards to try and get every single person who showed up with generic tickets in to play.
Hero Lab - Brilliant idea to have Lone Wolf Development set up a Hero Lab kiosk outside the Pathfinder hall. I hadn't been able to print out a copy of my character sheet at home and wasn't willing to deal with my hotel's "business center", so was just going to bring my character sheet on my tablet. But when I asked the guy running the kiosk if he could print my sheets off my thumb drive he said, "no problem" and printed them right up for me. Thanks for making things easier for me.
Some things that could be improved though...
BIGGER ROOM - Loved the adventures, but often had a hard time hearing the GM because it was standing room only in the Paizo hall. Might I suggest trading halls with WotC's 4th edition? They always seemed to have plenty of space and empty tables when I went by their room.
Fewer buttons - Collecting the buttons is fun, trying to collect five separate buttons is a chore. And missing out on the ninja because I was attending an event is irritating.
Overall an A+ showing though, I'm looking forward to next year.
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Great products for sale - Ultimate Combat, the last Carrion Crown AP and first Jade Regent AP, Goblins of Golarion, Pathfinder Society Field Guide, and Inner Sea Magic, as well as a few older books I'd missed. I spent nearly $150.00 just at the Paizo booth alone, and could have easily topped two hundred if I hadn't restrained myself.
Yeah, my subscription this month was almost $200 (although I had some back catalog stuff in there). That included the 15% subscriber discount on PF products, though.
Excellent adventures - I played in three adventures while I was there, the only three that weren't full when I pre-registered, but I could have easily attended more because (and MASSIVE kudos here) the Paizo staff bent over backwards to try and get every single person who showed up with generic tickets in to play.
Getting everyone to play the game is sort of the point to PFS :)
Hero Lab - Brilliant idea to have Lone Wolf Development set up a Hero Lab kiosk outside the Pathfinder hall.
I loved being able to send new players out to generate characters, and I'm sure I swamped the HL guys at time with people wanting to do so. On the other hand, the whole point was to get people to try the software so they would maybe buy it, so it was a good symbiotic relationship.
Some things that could be improved though...BIGGER ROOM - Loved the adventures, but often had a hard time hearing the GM because it was standing room only in the Paizo hall. Might I suggest trading halls with WotC's 4th edition? They always seemed to have plenty of space and empty tables when I went by their room.
This has been raised in other threads, too. There's a number of factors going on here, the largest being that the size of the room has to be negotiated between Paizo and Gen Con. PFS is definitely growing, but it's something that has to be quantified and proven before Gen Con will give up valuable show space that could otherwise be used for very popular events like True Dungeon, Magic, Pokemon, etc. Finally, Gen Con used to belong to WotC. It's likely -- and this is purely speculation on my part -- that part of the spin-off deal included a guaranteed amount of floor space for WotC events.
Fewer buttons - Collecting the buttons is fun, trying to collect five separate buttons is a chore. And missing out on the ninja because I was attending an event is irritating.
Heh. I was thinking it would be nice to have a daily PFS button, too. We did have people coming by and asking for the day's button all con long.
Me and my 4 other players from my regular group had a lot of fun, playing in 6-9 slots. We got to meet a lot of new DMs this year, and the quality of the DMs is getting better and better. Not one turkey in the bunch!
I love the buttons, but it is such a Catch-22 to get them. They are consistantly gone before noon each day, and I'm always playing Pathfinder then! Fortunately I was able to get all 4 this year due to some good fortune and the generostiy of the nice Paizo lady in the gaming area on Sunday, who gave me the ninja right off of her own lanyard. I can't say thank you enough!
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This year, my Gen Con buddies and I decided to play only PFS, and we had a blast. Quality for PFS GMs has always been on the high end, but this year we had a set of GMs that ranged from above average to excellent, which is quite a feat considering we had 8 different GMs. I have to give a specific shout-out to our cloaked GM for the special. She came out of the front of the generics line as a GM in order to let more people play, and thus she had maybe thirty minutes at best to prepare the humongous and awesome special. Even disregarding the fact that she didn't have much preparation and how difficult the special was to run, she was still the best GM we've had in PFS, combining enthusiasm, panache, rules knowledge, and a clear voice that cut right through the teeming masses at the special.
As a testament to why Paizo (and PFS VCs and GMs) are the classiest folks in the industry and why Gencon itself is...aggravating, we had two hurdles thrown at us by Gencon, and folks from Paizo and PFS went out of the way to help out:
First, Gencon lost 6/10 of our reservations, including the tickets for Midnight Mauler and Blood Under Absalom. I had talked about it with Hyrum at Paizocon, but of course he wasn't there at Gencon. Despite the fact that no one staffing PFS had any advance warning and I could have been just making this up as far as they knew, the whole PFS crew was extremely understanding, and they managed to not only seat us for 4 of the 6 slots (one we took off to make new PFS characters and one they ran out of seats) but they managed to do so without splitting up our group of 4 and to get us into the special--and the true testament of their commitment to all us PFS players is that they did so without showing us any special treatment: we waited in the generics line like everyone else, and they got us seated together almost every time.
The second bit of Gencon staff 'fun' came when my little brother left his badge in the bathroom and found it stolen just before one of the PFS slots that Gencon didn't actually lose. The PFS staff were extremely helpful, and I feel that our GM deserves congratulations for weathering the abuse from the obnoxious Gencon staff member who came over and hurled conspiracy-theory levels of accusations at both the GM himself and my brother with relatively good cheer (as a fun side note, the Gencon event staffer seems to hail from the River Kingdoms with his "you have what you hold" attitude, as he more-or-less told me when asked that they'd rather seat the thief who stole the badge and tickets than the paying customer).
Special recognition must go out to VC Mark Garringer, who noticed the mess with my little brother and more-or-less watched out for us for the rest of the Con, including finding us an unticketed pickup game just outside the PFS hall in one of those four slots and even bringing out the little wooden coins for us and the GM in that slot. Mark is a class act and a credit to the VCs and PFS.
I hear that more GMs will be needed to handle the desired larger room next year. I certainly plan on volunteering for a slot or two, and I'm trying to convince the others in my group to step up as well. You guys at PFS went out of your way to get all of us players into great games, and I for one believe in helping to give back.
It was also great to see people I know from the forums or have met in person before. This includes but is not limited to:
Tim Hitchcock, who bit the head off a mini to play the severed head of Mimir in my Iron GM game the same year I played my first PFS game, and master of the Ruby Phoenix entry test this year,
Liz Courts, the daimyo of the Paizocon Gnot Gninjas trivia team and keeper of the chest of goodies,
VC Michael Brock, our great GM of Shades of Ice Part I who, with amazingly badass certainty, called and received a natural 20 on his dice, on camera, when attacking a PC with AC over 20 higher than the NPC's attack bonus,
Joel Flank, whose fighter continually saved the day in Shadow's Last Stand with plenty of AoOs and disarms,
and probably at least several people who I missed (sorry!).
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As someone who had to Head Marshall the RPGA this year, I can say that we had a huge increase in over all turn out this year comparable to the same last year. That being said I'd love to see Paizo have a larger gathering room, and would be very nice to have Pathfinder be much closer, as the only PFS I got in at gen Con was at Scotties.
Huh; I would have thought the opposite, as every time I was in the vicinity of the Sagamore, it seemed there were fewer tables filled with players than I've seen in the past -- maybe the adventures are getting so easy that everyone finished an hour or two early...
The sign to me that RPGA/LFR is losing steam -- I had a real ticket for the LFR special on Saturday morning. Having left my LFR characters at home, and wanting to play PFS instead, I thought I would have no problem getting someone who would want to trade their generics for my real ticket. Would you believe it took me standing up on a chair and shouting out the offer *thrice* before getting any takers? And yes, I was at the correct location for the special's mustering, and yes, there were people there. Even then, the person who offered to trade seemed kind of "ho hum" about the offer...
Venture-Agent, Indiana—Lafayette
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Good Stuff
Hey Rogue, I was you GM for the incident with the GenCon police. Despite these hiccups it was a pleasure running you guys through that scenario (Sewer Dragons of Absalom, if my memory serves). I'm glad to hear that the PFS staff handled things to your satisfaction and that you all hand a great time playing pathfinder.
If you guys are ever in the Lafayette Indiana area look up our games at the Sage's Shoppe in West Lafayette.
See ya next con.
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This year, my Gen Con buddies and I decided to play only PFS, and we had a blast. Quality for PFS GMs has always been on the high end, but this year we had a set of GMs that ranged from above average to excellent, which is quite a feat considering we had 8 different GMs. I have to give a specific shout-out to our cloaked GM for the special. She came out of the front of the generics line as a GM in order to let more people play, and thus she had maybe thirty minutes at best to prepare the humongous and awesome special. Even disregarding the fact that she didn't have much preparation and how difficult the special was to run, she was still the best GM we've had in PFS, combining enthusiasm, panache, rules knowledge, and a clear voice that cut right through the teeming masses at the special.
To give credit where it is due, that was Nani Pratt, one of my awesome Asst. Coordinators and DMs here in Atlanta. Great job Nani.
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Oops, one thing I want to mention.
The Will Call on Thursday morning was horrible and it took nearly 3 hours to get my badge. I hope they do something about that next year or at least allow international people to mail their tickets out.
as far as I am aware this has always and will always be a problem.
A few suggestions, Volunteer, easier to get your tickets, or get there earlier. If you expect to get your ticket on a reasonable time on Thursday you are excepting the impossible. Wednesday is a much better day to get them.
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Good StuffHey Rogue, I was you GM for the incident with the GenCon police. Despite these hiccups it was a pleasure running you guys through that scenario (Sewer Dragons of Absalom, if my memory serves). I'm glad to hear that the PFS staff handled things to your satisfaction and that you all hand a great time playing pathfinder.
If you guys are ever in the Lafayette Indiana area look up our games at the Sage's Shoppe in West Lafayette.
See ya next con.
It was Shades of Ice Part III--it was a blast! The player of Karnath (our Barbarian) said that he has never been as viscerally afraid for Karnath's life than in that first encounter, and it was gratifying and challenging for my cleric to help keep the level 1 Paladin safe in the ravine--it was awesome too to see him come into his own in the last encounter and put himself in harm's way to really save the day, level 1 in a 4-5 be damned! If you're ever in the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville area, let me know (we don't play in a game shop, so we're aren't as look-uppable).
To give credit where it is due, that was Nani Pratt, one of my awesome Asst. Coordinators and DMs here in Atlanta. Great job Nani.
It certainly was! It was a pleasure to play Blood Under Absalom with her--the opera fight was probably the stand-out encounter for the whole con. Only a shame that the special had so much content that we kept being cut off midway by the beginning of the next section.
The sign to me that RPGA/LFR is losing steam
I heard 25% growth for RPGA/Sagamore Ballroom from various sources.
From my end, as an admin for Ashes of Athas, the growth was really amazing. We are way beyond where we expected to be at this stage (our aim is to be something that complements the other WotC organized play experiences). Interest has been really high and players and DMs seem to by-and-large really like the innovations we have been doing with 4E (nothing is ever perfect with experimentation).
The LFR I played was story and RP-rich, had great challenge, and had tons of innovation as well. Each con brings better LFR adventures than the last. Though I didn't play Living Divine this time, I like the innovation that campaign is bringing as well.
I spoke with a few friends that play Pathfinder and they all gave glowing reviews.
It sounds like both RPGA and Pathfinder had great growth and marshals working overtime to accommodate hungry players. In other words, fantastic results for our hobby! Both clearly need more judges.
I also had the opportunity to run the same table I had in 2010 through this year's Year of the Ruby Phoenix special. Again, as always I had a blast.
Ryan - Our whole table had a great time at the Special - thanks again for GM'ing for us!
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Lots of nice stuff
Thank you for the kind comments! I loved GMing for you guys (and I hope I didn't crush your dreams too much with the metamagic rod errata). Thanks for making it such a great game. As a GM, especially at large events, its often that we never hear feedback from players, and when someone takes the time to make a shout out on the boards it's sometimes because they had a bad experience. The reason we GM is to have those awesome times where everyone has fun. hope to see you guys again at another con!
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Lots of nice stuffThank you for the kind comments! I loved GMing for you guys (and I hope I didn't crush your dreams too much with the metamagic rod errata). Thanks for making it such a great game. As a GM, especially at large events, its often that we never hear feedback from players, and when someone takes the time to make a shout out on the boards it's sometimes because they had a bad experience. The reason we GM is to have those awesome times where everyone has fun. hope to see you guys again at another con!
No worries whatsoever--I was actually sort of hoping it was errataed, frankly. It was obviously an error that broke the standard formula and we instantly houseruled the swap in all our home games. So when my brother saw another player with that rod and wanted one, I told him not to buy one and asked the GM, but he was pretty sure it was legal. If you remember, I'm the one who brought up to you that it might have been errataed when you were commenting on its power--I did that each game because I couldn't believe it hadn't been errataed.
Of course, after the Special he had enough prestige and gold to just pay the extra cost to make up the difference, so he still has that killer rod.
Heck, he made his second character at the Con to play a 1-5 when his sorcerer was 6, and he was thinking of his patron deity and decided on Norgorber (Reaper of Reputation) remembering your character.
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No worries whatsoever--I was actually sort of hoping it was errataed, frankly. It was obviously an error that broke the standard formula and we instantly houseruled the swap in all our home games. So when my brother saw another player with that rod and wanted one, I told him not to buy one and asked the GM, but he was pretty sure it was legal. If you remember, I'm the one who brought up to you that it might have been errataed when you were commenting on its power--I did that each game because I couldn't believe it hadn't been errataed.
Of course, after the Special he had enough prestige and gold to just pay the extra cost to make up the difference, so he still has that killer rod.
Heck, he made his second character at the Con to play a 1-5 when his sorcerer was 6, and he was thinking of his patron deity and decided on Norgorber (Reaper of Reputation) remembering your character.
There is nothing wrong with him legitimately having the rod. Just making all GMs cry. I think my controller wizard needs one now!!! Tell him Norgorber is a fabulous patron deity since you can pretend to be anything you want (my Cleric, Siven, is a career politician). Reaper of Reputation is a way better aspect than Skinsaw Man (murdering everyone in sight? Who would be there to suck up to you then?).